Epicoccum diplopterygii
Epicoccum diplopterygii H. Li, K.D. Hyde & Manawas., sp. nov.
Index Fungorum: IF 905123; Facesoffungi number: FoF 19502.
Etymology: The name refers to the host genus Diplopterygium chinense, from which it was isolated.
Holotype: MHKU 24-0837
Description: Endophytic in fresh leaves of Diplopterygium chinense. Sexual morph: Not observed. Asexual morph: Vegetative hyphae 3–6 μm gathering, branched, white to pale yellow. Conidiomata sporodochial 130–220 μm diam (n = 10) abundant, aggregated, superficial, pale brown initially, turning dark with age. Conidiophores 13–21 × 3–5 μm (x̅ = 18.2 × 4.6 μm, n = 10) μm, macronematous or semi-macronematous, branched, yellow to pale brown. Conidiophores cell 8–15 × 6–14 μm (x̅ = 11.6 × 10.1 μm, n = 20), verrucose, pale brown to dark brown. Conidia 14–20 × 11–15 μm (x̅ = 16.1 × 13.6 μm, n = 30), solitary, acrogenous, 1–3 septate, irregular in shape, sometimes subglobose, brown to dark brown, rough-walled.
Culture characteristics: Colony on PDA reaching 40 mm diam after 4 days at 25 °C in the dark. Colonies fluffy with dense mycelia, on the surface, apricot in the centre with white margin, in reverse dark coral in the centre with orange irregular margin.
Material examined: China, Yunnan Province, Puer City, Ailao Mountain, from fresh leaves of Diplopterygium chinense, 16 June 2023, H. Li, ZHKUCC 24-1467 (MHKU 24-0837, holotype); ex-type living culture, ZHKUCC 24-1468.
GenBank numbers: ZHKUCC 24-1467: ITS: PZ094857, LSU: PZ094861, rpb2: PZ094688, tub2: PZ094684; ZHKUCC 24-1468: ITS: PZ094858, LSU: PZ094862, rpb2: PZ094689, tub2: PZ094685.
Notes: In the phylogenetic analyses, our new isolates (ZHKUCC 24-1467 and ZHKUCC 24-1468) grouped with Epicoccum loliicola with 79% ML, 0.93 BIPP statistical support (Fig. 1). The asexual morph of E. loliicola was introduced by Xu et al. (2014) from Lolium multiflorum in China. Our isolates differ from Epicoccum loliicola (HMCE5) in having smaller conidia (14.8 × 11.4 μm vs. 16.1 × 13.6 μm), which are irregular in shape and 1–3-septate, whereas E. loliicola possesses globose to subglobose or pyriform, aseptate conidia that are brown to dark brown and verrucose (Xu et al. 2014). Pairwise sequence comparisons between the new isolate (ZHKUCC 24-1467) and E. loliicola (HMCE5) revealed nucleotide differences of 3/823 bp (0.4%) in LSU, 1/459 bp (0.2%) in ITS, 13/849 bp (1.5%) in rpb2, and 13/269 bp (5%) in tub2. Phylogeny also indicates that the clade containing our isolates and E. loliicola provides a sister lineage to E. yunnanense. The sexual morph of E. yunnanense differs from our isolate in having larger conidia (16.1 × 13.6 μm vs.14 × 7 μm), and the conidia surface of E. yunnanense are smooth, whereas those of our new isolates are irregular (Tian et al. 2024). Hence, based on significant differences, we present our isolate as a novel species, E. diplopterygii from Diplopterygium chinense.
Figure 1. Epicoccum diplopterygii (MHKU 24-0837, holotype). a, b Colony on PDA (front
and reverse). c Sporodochia. d–e Conidiogenous cells with attached conidium. f–l Conidia. Scale bars: c = 0.1 mm, d–l = 10 μm.
Figure 2. Phylogenetic tree generated by maximum likelihood analyses based on the combined ITS, LSU, rpb2, and tub2 sequence alignments of Epicoccum. Macroventuria anomochaeta (CBS 525.71) and Neodidymelliopsis cannabis (CBS 121.75) are used as the outgroup taxa. Bootstrap support values for maximum likelihood (ML) equal to or greater than 70% and Bayesian posterior probabilities equal to or greater than 0.90 are indicated above branches as
References
- Hua Li, Dhanushka N. Wanasinghe, Chitrabhanu S. Bhunjun, Chuanhao Zhou, Kevin D. Hyde, Ishara S. Manawasinghe. Two New Species of Pleosporales from Pteridophytes in China
Recent Genus
EpicoccumAmphisphaeria
Paraeutypella
Recent Species
Epicoccum diplopterygiiTorula chromolaenae
Periconia delonicis